Now someone else gets the be the one that’s five minutes late to every staff meeting

I remember sitting in the Sevrinson Hall dorm, room 208, my freshman year here at NDSU, trying to find the exact way to word the email I was about to send. By that time, I think I had only been going to my very first college classes for a day or two, and probably had yet to send an email from my NDSU account.

The email was to the Taylor Schloemer, the then sports editor at The Spectrum, and naturally the owner of the email account for the sports section. I sent the email, explaining who I was, why I wanted to write for the sports section and if it was possible for me to join the staff. Thankfully, Taylor got back to me very quickly, and within a week I had written my first article.

Full disclosure, the article was not very good. I was covering a home volleyball game, and had yet to discover how to craft an easy, enjoyable article for readers. I am sure it’s still in The Spectrum website archives (or in a four-year old physical copy of the paper at my parent’s house) if you want to go read it and critique me. However, if you do, go kind on young 18 year-old Ian, he was trying his best.

Fast forward three and a half years and a billion articles later, and I find myself here, writing my last piecework as the current sports editor for the paper. My three years as an editor here at the paper have been a blast. It dawned on me how long I have been in this position when early this fall, Andrew Haugland, one of the more seasoned sports staff members sent me a message saying, “I thought your old ass graduated.” Not yet Andrew, you were stuck with me for one more semester.

I got to meet and get to know so many sweet people working for the paper. I’m going to miss being able to see the sports writers that would grow and develop with each article they wrote. I am going to miss the little chats I would have with our receptionist Pauline every time I walked into The Spectrum office. I am going to miss the free food offered in the press box at home Bison football games.

I love sports, and I loved writing for the sports section for these past few years. My goal when I started was not just to become a better writer, but to try and leave this position and the paper as good, if not better than it was when I got here.

If you happened to wander upon and read any of my thoughts and feelings regarding the world of sports during my time he, I hope you enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed writing them. Stay cool everyone, and go Bison.